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Questions Answered

What is COSH!?

COSH! stan­ds for COn­s­ci­ous SHop­ping and hel­ps people wan­ting to live more eco­lo­gi­cal­ly find more sus­ta­ina­ble clot­hing. On our plat­form, you can dis­co­ver more sus­ta­ina­ble alter­na­ti­ves to fashi­on, cosme­tics and lifes­tyle pro­duc­ts. COSH! con­si­ders many per­so­nal pre­fe­ren­ces such as vegan clot­hing, cir­cu­lar opti­ons, orga­nic raw mate­ri­als or natu­ral ingre­di­ents. 

How did COSH! start? Our foun­der Niki de Schryver’s pione­ering work for Hones­t­by has alre­ady kick-star­ted growth in the tran­s­pa­ren­cy of other bran­ds in the fashi­on wor­ld. Howe­ver, she noti­ced the bran­ds were on board with this revo­lu­ti­on, but the con­su­mer was­n’t yet. The gap betwe­en con­su­mer beha­vi­our and the sup­ply cha­in intri­gu­ed her, so she inves­ti­ga­ted this and found a solu­ti­on. 

She won­de­red why so few people were buying more sus­ta­ina­ble clot­hing and sus­pec­ted that per­so­nal style and bud­get were the main reasons. The rese­ar­ch con­duc­ted con­fir­med her hun­ch. It takes too much effort for the con­su­mer to find ethi­cal and sus­ta­ina­ble fashi­on, and COSH! is here to sol­ve that problem!

At COSH!, we do not see sus­ta­ina­bi­lity as a black-and-whi­te story. The­re are many dif­fe­rent aspec­ts to sus­ta­ina­bi­lity. Few bran­ds sco­re on all cha­rac­te­ris­tics such as cir­cu­la­rity, natu­ral fibres, a short sup­ply cha­in, che­mi­cal-free, ethi­cal and local pro­duc­ti­on, zero was­te and car­bon neutra­lity. All the reta­ilers and entre­pre­ne­urs featu­red on the COSH! plat­form are stri­ving to build a bet­ter futu­re for fashi­on in the­ir own way. They are all com­mit­ted to a more sus­ta­ina­ble and ethi­cal indus­try and the­re­fo­re deser­ve COSH!‘s and the cus­to­mer’s full sup­port!

COSH! emp­ha­si­ses on local sto­res. The COSH! mem­ber reta­ilers are always local entre­pre­ne­urs and/​or reta­ilers that sell more sus­ta­ina­ble pro­duc­ts. This inclu­des a wide ran­ge of second-hand fin­ds, upcy­cled items, local­ly and han­d­craf­ted pro­duc­ts, col­lec­ti­ons made from orga­nic natu­ral mate­ri­als, etc. 

We express the sus­ta­ina­bi­lity of a brand using the COSH! Brand Index. Each mem­ber of the COSH! com­mu­nity (with the excep­ti­on of secon­d­hand sto­res) can requ­est a brand to be scre­ened each year. Using the COSH! Brand Index, we take into acco­unt 7 facets of sus­ta­ina­bi­lity: ethics (wor­king con­di­ti­ons), eco­lo­gi­cal (impact on the envi­ron­ment), cir­cu­la­rity, sup­ply cha­in, ani­mal well-being, slow fashi­on prin­ci­ples, and tran­s­pa­ren­cy of a brand. Our algo­rit­hm is also cons­tan­tly chan­ging and impro­ving, to keep up to date with the evol­ving indus­try. This way, we hope to dis­play each bran­d’s sus­ta­ina­bi­lity efforts fair­ly and com­ple­tely.
By con­sul­ting the COSH! Brand Index for a clot­hing brand, con­su­mers can easily see how the brand is doing in each aspect. At the same time, the deta­iled texts expla­in how each brand wor­ks towar­ds a more sus­ta­ina­ble future.

COSH! star­ted out in Bel­gi­um, but has sin­ce grown and expan­ded into the Net­her­lan­ds, Spa­in and Ger­many. COSH! aims to be your go-to plat­form, guiding you in your sus­ta­ina­bi­lity jour­ney and hel­ping you make more infor­med and ins­pi­red con­s­ci­ous shop­ping choices.

For retailers and entrepreneurs…

Once a reta­iler joins, we can set up the COSH! shop page in less than five wor­king days. From then on, the com­pany will be inclu­ded in the COSH! com­mu­nity, rele­vant arti­cles and soci­al media pos­ts. The requ­es­ted brand scre­ening will be com­ple­ted as soon as possi­ble, in the order they are requ­es­ted from us (first in first out), pro­ba­bly wit­hin 1 – 6 months.

Inte­res­ted in joining COSH!? Find out more!

Don’t wor­ry! COSH! can help you tran­si­ti­on towar­ds beco­ming a more sus­ta­ina­ble sto­re. COSH! has no strict mini­mum sus­ta­ina­bi­lity requ­ire­ments beca­use we beli­eve everyo­ne can impro­ve and beco­me more sus­ta­ina­ble with the rig­ht help and advi­ce. So book a meeting with us, and we will glad­ly guide you thro­ugh the process.

COSH! is deve­lo­ping a sys­tem to rate the sus­ta­ina­bi­lity of sto­res. By taking into acco­unt a lot of dif­fe­rent aspec­ts of the sto­re, we want to rate its level of sus­ta­ina­bi­lity and advi­se its owners on how they can impro­ve. For exam­ple, the COSH! Sto­re Index will look at the sto­re’s ener­gy pro­vi­der, pac­ka­ging mate­ri­als and deli­very opti­ons. Apart from that, it will also con­si­der all the bran­ds that are sold by the reta­iler. The sto­re rating will be lin­ked to the COSH! Brand Index.

Only reta­ilers and entre­pre­ne­urs who affil­li­ate with COSH! are cle­ar­ly visi­ble on the COSH! plat­form. Poten­ti­al cus­to­mers can select the­se shops and boutiqu­es to plan a more sus­ta­ina­ble shop­ping trip. 

Reta­ilers inte­res­ted in joining COSH! can find more infor­ma­ti­on here.

Con­ti­nu­ous sub­s­crip­ti­ons ensu­re that COSH! can pro­vi­de up-to-date infor­ma­ti­on. This form of fair com­pen­sa­ti­on is nece­ssary to ensu­re mar­ke­ting efforts that inclu­de sus­ta­ina­ble sto­res are pre­sen­ted to shop­pers reli­ably. This way COSH! can also inde­pen­den­tly rese­ar­ch the sus­ta­ina­bi­lity of the bran­ds that are sold by the sub­s­cri­bing reta­ilers to pro­vi­de deta­iled and reli­able infor­ma­ti­on to con­su­mers. Citi­es can con­tri­bu­te to reta­ilers’ cos­ts on a one-off or annu­al basis. For exam­ple, some citi­es cover (part of) the COSH! sub­s­crip­ti­on for the­ir sus­ta­ina­ble shops. 

Than­ks to the inco­me COSH! rece­ives thro­ugh its sub­s­crip­ti­ons, we can invest in mar­ke­ting tools to incre­ase shop­pers’ awa­re­ness of sus­ta­ina­ble fashi­on, guiding them to sus­ta­ina­ble reta­ilers with an offer that suits tho­se shoppers.

COSH!‘s reta­ilers are part of a com­mu­nity that ampli­fi­es living more sus­ta­ina­bly. Our plat­form allows you to invol­ve your cus­to­mers in that story. We want to sum­ma­ri­se the­se four reasons for cho­osing COSH! You attract new cus­to­mers. You help (potential/​new) cus­to­mers save time in the­ir sear­ch for sus­ta­ina­ble fashi­on. You incre­ase your tur­no­ver and redu­ce your cos­ts thro­ugh tar­get gro­up-ori­en­ted acquisition.

You are part of a reli­able network. Do you also beli­eve in a more sus­ta­ina­ble and tran­s­pa­rent fashi­on indus­try as a reta­iler? Then join COSH now!

About the COSH! Brand Index

The COSH! Brand Index cur­ren­tly wor­ks at a brand level. We have deve­lo­ped an algo­rit­hm to cal­cu­la­te a bran­d’s sus­ta­ina­bi­lity with a rating from 0 to 100.

The cal­cu­la­ti­on is based on a com­pre­hen­si­ve ques­ti­on­na­ire divi­ded into 7 cate­go­ri­es: People, Pla­net, Cir­cu­la­rity, Sup­ply Cha­in, Ani­mal Wel­fa­re, Slow Fashi­on and Tran­s­pa­ren­cy. The rating of each scre­ened brand can be found on the bran­d’s page. In addi­ti­on to this rating, you will find text expla­ining how the brand per­for­ms in each category.

The sco­re cate­go­ri­es per the­me are cate­go­ri­sed as follows:

  • Cate­gory A: The brand sco­res betwe­en 81 – 100
  • Cate­gory B: The brand sco­res betwe­en 61 – 80
  • Cate­gory C: The brand sco­res betwe­en 41 – 60
  • Cate­gory D: The brand sco­res betwe­en 21 – 40
  • Cate­gory E: The brand sco­res betwe­en 0 – 20

No, but we try to keep it as accu­ra­te as possible. 

Many rating sys­tems or cer­ti­fi­ca­tes look at a brand from one angle or level. For exam­ple, the Higg index (MSI) only looks at a fibre’s usa­ge level and pol­lu­ti­on level. Rank-a-brand stron­gly emp­ha­si­zed the ener­gy mana­ge­ment of pro­duc­ti­on units and headqu­ar­ters. Cer­ti­fi­ca­tes rela­ted to fair pro­duc­ti­on or crad­le-to-crad­le are often only achi­eva­ble for mul­ti­na­ti­onals like G‑Star and C&A. At the same time, smal­ler bran­ds some­ti­mes offer more cir­cu­lar pro­duc­ts but make too small a tur­no­ver to afford such a cer­ti­fi­ca­te.

COSH! focu­ses mainly on pro­ce­ssing infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut sus­ta­ina­ble fashi­on bran­ds and wants to make it easi­er for con­su­mers to make more sus­ta­ina­ble clot­hing cho­ices. To do so, we use the infor­ma­ti­on we rece­ive thro­ugh our asse­s­sments, a bran­d’s onli­ne cla­ims, our indus­try knowled­ge, sus­ta­ina­bi­lity cer­ti­fi­ca­tes and our cri­ti­cal eye. When in doubt, we sear­ch data­ba­ses or requ­est fac­tu­al infor­ma­ti­on. COSH! can­not go on-site to check a pro­duc­ti­on pro­cess or per­form chec­ks. The­re­fo­re, we check cer­ti­fi­ca­te num­bers whe­ne­ver possi­ble.

In addi­ti­on, we check whet­her the texti­le sup­pli­ers a brand wor­ks with actu­al­ly pro­du­ce the fabrics the brand men­ti­ons. COSH! looks cri­ti­cal­ly at a brand and con­si­ders whet­her the sus­ta­ina­bi­lity story mat­c­hes the clot­hes the brand manu­fac­tu­res and sel­ls in physi­cal shops or via other sales channels.

COSH! wor­ks with local, more sus­ta­ina­ble sto­res to find and scre­en bran­ds. At the begin­ning of 2023, over 900 bran­ds were scre­ened by COSH! at the requ­est of our mem­bers (reta­ilers and local entre­pre­ne­urs). Depen­ding on the­ir sub­s­crip­ti­on, reta­ilers that joined COSH! can annu­al­ly requ­est one or two bran­ds from us for analysis. We scre­en the­se bran­ds’ sus­ta­ina­bi­lity cha­rac­te­ris­tics and cla­ims and eva­lu­ate them accor­ding to the COSH! Brand Index. (Non-clot­hing bran­ds like jewel­lery and cosme­tic bran­ds are also analysed, alt­ho­ugh they are not yet inclu­ded in the COSH! Brand Index.)

By wor­king this way, we aim to one day cover the enti­re mar­ket and be a reli­able plat­form dri­ven by that mar­ket. Reta­ilers can incen­ti­vi­se bran­ds to ope­ra­te more sus­ta­ina­bly, promp­ting us to re-analyse tho­se bran­ds that have made addi­ti­onal efforts or are sus­pec­ted of having lesse­ned them. This way, COSH! stays a reta­il-mar­ket dri­ven plat­form with up-to-date information.

Questions on Green Fashion Tours

In our visi­on, Gre­en Fashi­on rela­tes to a texti­le and appa­rel indus­try with core valu­es: tran­s­pa­ren­cy, quality and cir­cu­la­rity. It’s what the enti­re COSH! plat­form is built aro­und and what we radi­ate. But, of cour­se, the­re is never a per­fect cho­ice. Still, the­re are always opti­ons in ter­ms of sus­ta­ina­bi­lity. A Gre­en Fashi­on indus­try sho­uld res­pect the envi­ron­ment, people, and cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ges.

The sto­res and labels on COSH! ful­fil our sus­ta­ina­bi­lity cri­te­ria:

Cir­cu­la­rity: Thro­ugh repa­ir ser­vi­ces, reuse plat­for­ms, ren­ting sys­tems, rede­sign tec­h­niqu­es and recy­cling tec­h­no­lo­gi­es, the life­ti­me of pro­duc­ts is exten­ded, and the value of mate­ri­als is incre­ased. Bran­ds and sto­res in this cate­gory work towar­ds imple­men­ting a Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy.

Envi­ron­men­tal con­s­ci­ous­ness: The pro­duc­ts stand for care­ful use of reso­ur­ces, com­mit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­ti­on, and avo­idan­ce of che­mi­cals and reso­ur­ce-inten­si­ve mate­ri­als. The­re­fo­re the label is invol­ved in envi­ron­men­tal cam­pa­ig­ns and envi­ron­men­tal acti­ons.

Fair Fashi­on: the sto­re or the label is cer­ti­fi­ed or uses cer­ti­fi­ed mate­ri­als and wor­ks with accre­di­ted manu­fac­tu­rers for at least 80% of the pro­duc­ts. You can find a list of cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons onli­ne on www​.get​c​han​ged​.net

Inno­va­ti­on: The label con­tri­bu­tes inno­va­ti­vely to sus­ta­ina­ble deve­lop­ment using cut­ting-edge mate­ri­als, tec­h­no­lo­gi­es and pro­duc­ti­on pro­ce­sses.

Local: The pro­duc­ts are made direc­tly at the desig­ner’s ate­li­er or a manu­fac­tu­rer: The over­ri­ding goal is to achi­eve the shor­test possi­ble tran­s­port routes and sup­port local desig­ners, the local manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try and craf­t­sman­ship.

Second-hand: Buying second-hand is an act of sus­ta­ina­ble con­sump­ti­on. It redu­ces the was­te we cre­ate with fast fashi­on con­sump­ti­on and keeps clot­hes in lon­ger life cycles.

Soci­al & Cul­tu­ral appro­ac­hes: Dif­fe­rent local soci­al gro­ups or arti­sans wor­l­dwi­de are invol­ved in the design pro­ce­sses. The brand aims for human empower­ment, soci­al inclu­si­on and keeping tra­di­ti­onal craf­t­sman­ship ali­ve.

Sus­ta­ina­ble Jewel­ry: At least 80% of the jewel­lery pro­duc­ts are cer­ti­fi­ed fair­tra­de or made of cer­ti­fi­ed or recy­cled mate­ri­als. Also, lab-made diamon­ds and other gem­s­to­nes are con­si­de­red sus­ta­ina­ble. In addi­ti­on, the com­pany can pro­vi­de 100% tran­s­pa­rent infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the­ir value cha­in.

Tran­s­pa­ren­cy: The label knows every sin­gle manu­fac­tu­rer, the ori­gin and com­po­si­ti­on of the mate­ri­als used. All pro­duc­ts and ser­vi­ces are pro­du­ced under fair and tran­s­pa­rent conditions.

Guided by an expert in sus­ta­ina­ble fashi­on, a Gre­en Fashi­on Tour is a jour­ney of knowled­ge and per­so­nal expe­ri­en­ces dis­co­ve­ring alter­na­ti­ves to conven­ti­onal fashi­on.

During a Gre­en Fashi­on Tour, the guide sha­res impor­tant bac­k­gro­und infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the glo­bal fashi­on indus­try and per­so­nal­ly intro­du­ces you to the entre­pre­ne­urs behind selec­ted con­cept sto­res, design stu­di­os, start-ups and ini­ti­ati­ves. Dif­fe­rent tour guides have dif­fe­rent bac­k­gro­un­ds and exper­ti­se, let’s find the rig­ht one for you. On top, you will hear sto­ri­es of soci­al busi­ne­sses and sus­ta­ina­ble design stra­te­gi­es direc­tly from the­ir cre­ators and get answers to all your questions.

The num­ber of stops depen­ds on the tour dura­ti­on and the dis­tan­ces betwe­en each stop. Usu­al­ly, we visit 3 – 4 pla­ces during the 2−2,5 hour-long tour. More stops can be added in more exten­ded, cus­to­mi­sed tours.

Abso­lu­tely not! Our public tours are for every per­son who is inte­res­ted in the topic. The guide will pro­vi­de the par­ti­ci­pants with the basic infor­ma­ti­on nece­ssary to under­stand the fashi­on indus­try and sus­ta­ina­bi­lity stra­te­gi­es.

Sup­po­se you are alre­ady a sus­ta­ina­ble fashi­on guru and want to learn somet­hing new; we invi­te you to book a pri­va­te tour. This way, we can tailor your Gre­en Fashi­on Tours expe­ri­en­ce to your needs and wishes.

You can pur­c­ha­se your tic­kets here on our web­si­te. Just cho­ose the city whe­re you would like to take the tour, and you will direc­tly rece­ive the city’s upco­ming tour dates.

If you want to book a cus­to­mi­sed tour or a tour pac­ka­ge, ple­ase fill out our form (see abo­ve) or send your requ­est to info@cosh.eco. Ple­ase spe­cify how many people will come with you, when the tour sho­uld take pla­ce and your main inte­res­ts. We will con­tact you asap to give you more infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut pri­ces and possi­ble routes.

For the cus­to­mi­sed tours, we set a gro­up pri­ce (max. 15 par­ti­ci­pants per gro­up). The pri­ce starts from € 352,- (ex. VAT, ser­vi­ces are invo­iced from COSH! Bel­gi­um) for the 2.5‑hour experience.

Small gro­ups of 2 to 6 people pay € 95 per hour (ex. VAT).

The tour pac­ka­ge pri­ce vari­es depen­ding on its dura­ti­on, acti­vi­ti­es, and gro­up size. Ple­ase get in touch with us if you want to have a pri­ce quota­ti­on. All the public tic­ket pri­ces dis­played on the web­si­te are inclu­si­ve of VAT.

The cus­to­mi­sed tours or tour pac­ka­ges must be paid in advan­ce via bank tran­sfer, Paypal, Mol­lie or Stri­pe. Ple­ase indi­ca­te your preferences.

If you requ­est this kind of ser­vi­ce, we will send you a quota­ti­on refer­ring to our Ter­ms & Con­di­ti­ons with the spe­ci­fic payment conditions.

For pri­va­te tours:
Sin­ce a can­cel­la­ti­on affec­ts a guide’s sche­du­le and inco­me, we would like a two-week noti­ce to orga­ni­se anot­her tour for the guide.

For public tours:
Yes, you can can­cel your par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on thro­ugh Even­t­bri­te wit­hin 48 hours befo­re the tour takes pla­ce.

If you deci­de to buy a tic­ket on short noti­ce (48 hours befo­re the tour), we can­not refund your tic­ket. Howe­ver, the 48 hours give us eno­ugh time to inform the other par­ti­ci­pants and the entre­pre­ne­urs we visit abo­ut even­tu­al changes.

Unfor­tu­na­tely not. Ple­ase book your tic­ket in advan­ce. This way, we can tell you if the tour is ful­ly booked, or we can pun­c­tu­al­ly pro­vi­de you with the exact infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the meeting point.

Howe­ver, if you want to join a tour last minu­te, drop us a messa­ge via ema­il or on Ins­ta­gram, and we will try to inform the guide. We will let you know asap if it is possi­ble to join.

The­re is no mini­mum num­ber of par­ti­ci­pants for a cus­to­mi­sed tour. You can even book a one-on-one expe­ri­en­ce. We have dif­fe­rent pri­ces for gro­ups of vari­ous sizes (see the ques­ti­on: What is the pri­ce for a cus­to­mi­sed tour or a tour pac­ka­ge?)

The maxi­mum num­ber of par­ti­ci­pants per gro­up for the cus­to­mi­sed tours is 15. Howe­ver, tour pac­ka­ges can usu­al­ly be booked for 6 – 15 people depen­ding on your cho­sen acti­vi­ti­es.

We also accept requ­es­ts from big­ger gro­ups, which we can divi­de into smal­ler groups.

Are you looking to explo­re the local sce­ne and dis­co­ver all steps of the sup­ply cha­in and its pione­ers that are buil­ding a new eco­nomy?
Ple­ase get in touch with us if you want more infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut our 1 – 5 days pac­ka­ges. To cre­ate the most valu­able expe­ri­en­ce for your gro­up, we would be ple­ased to dis­cuss all the deta­ils with you and cho­ose the rig­ht pro­gram modu­les toget­her in Bel­gi­um, Ber­lin or the Net­her­lan­ds.

Ple­ase wri­te us at: germany@cosh.eco

Ger­man Gre­en Fashi­on Tours offers tours in Ger­man, English, Spa­nish and Ita­li­an.

In Bel­gi­um and the Net­her­lan­ds, one can book in English or Dutch.

Not all our guides spe­ak all the lan­gu­ages, so this is subject to ava­ila­bi­lity. Ple­ase note that tours with big­ger gro­ups are gene­ral­ly run in English.

Usu­al­ly, we don’t can­cel a tour beca­use of weat­her con­di­ti­ons. Howe­ver, in case of bad weat­her, we recom­mend brin­ging your umbrel­la, water­pro­of sho­es, and clot­hes ☺.

Ple­ase requ­est our full Ter­ms & Con­di­ti­ons for more infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding our insu­ran­ce poli­ci­es for gro­up tours.

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